Alternative knowledge and the ecological crisis

Saturday, 2nd September, 2017

A Talk by Marcelo Firpo Porto
Senior Researcher – National School of Public Health – Oswaldo Cruz Foundation- Rio de Janeiro - Brazil

2.30pm to 4pm, followed by afternoon tea – Free event, donations welcome.

Introduction:

Marcelo's personal interest is the conditions and alternatives for a better dialogue between modern science and traditional knowledges, using the socio-ecological crisis as background. He will highlight the needs of new knowledge-epistemologies to tackle the limits of modern science. As the ecological crisis can be seen as a civilization crisis, overcoming it also depends on a paradigmatic transition, that is, on the possibilities of the emergence and encounters of new-old knowledges, what Boaventura de Sousa Santos calls an ecology of knowledges.

This idea is complemented by the work of Peter Coates in his book on Ibn Arabi (Ibn Arabi and the Modern Thought) to reflect on the limits of modern science that underlies modernity. The limit of modern science is the limit of rationality. However, it cannot reach the space of transcendent, revealed and intuitive knowledge which is present in all traditional societies. Some illustrations will be given from Brazilian indigenous and Quilombolas (Afro-descendant) groups who do not live modern, capitalistic worlds (parallel words) to explore the notions and praxis about health and labour.

This talk will be a valuable introduction to many of the issues which will be addressed during Colin Tudge’s seminars in September.

Marcelo Firpo Porto:
For the last 30 years he has been investigating socio-environmental crises and conflicts using Political Ecology, Ecological Economics, Public Health, and Environmental Justice as academic frameworks. Currently he is a visiting researcher at the Centre of Social Studies in the University of Coimbra working with Prof. Boaventura de Sousa Santos, a Portuguese social scientist. The latter's academic work focuses on challenging the paradigms of western modernity. These are regarded as providing superior ways of knowing reality than those found in non-western cultures and societies. This has led to the view that eurocentric modernity marks the ultimate stage of humanity or the ‘end of history’.

For more information please ring the secretary on 01450 880 215, or write to secretary@chisholme.org